/Film will be recapping and discussing each episode of the third season of Breaking Bad. A spoiler warning applies after the jump for the recaps and for the comments section. Meth heads welcome. For previous recaps, click here.
This is my own private domicile. I will not be harassed, bitch!” – Jesse Pinkman
From an opening shot of two blazers belonging to the Cousins of Death hanging on a clothesline against a glaring desert “Sunset,” the sixth episode was imbued with the showdowns and imagery of a modern Western. The structure was free of flashbacks and high on pressure-cooker drama, with no less than three showdowns, the most memorable of which saw Walt and Jesse unexpectedly mourn a great, unsung character of sorts. And the season continued to focus on Hank’s wellbeing and search for self, the loner sheriff to Jesse and Walt’s bickering cocksure outlaws. Between the panic attacks, the fast food stakeouts, and a strenuous, ever-lonely professional and domestic life: will Hank break before he breaks the case of his life?
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/Film will be recapping and discussing each episode of the third season of Breaking Bad. For this installment, /Film discourses with Natasha Vargas-Cooper, a sharp-witted, caps-friendly writer at The Awl and author of the new book Mad Men Unbuttoned, due this July from HarperStudio. A spoiler warning applies after the jump for the recap and for the comments section. Meth heads welcome. For previous recaps, click here.
Hunter Stephenson: Before we discuss the hell-tinted game-changer that was “Mas,” tell me where Walter White resides in your obsession with masculine anti-heroes in current TV and film. What does Breaking Bad tell us about the state of the modern man?
Natasha Vargas-Cooper: Walter White, thanks to magnificent Bryan Cranston, has quickly ascended into the highest echelon of beloved Manly Men Who Do Bad Things. He is Sopranos status for me. I think what White has—what you see echoed in characters like Don Draper, Tony Soprano, Jim McNulty—is fragmented existence. In their professional lives these men are the masters of their craft and at home they are considered failures.
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/Film will be recapping and discussing each episode of the third season of Breaking Bad. A spoiler warning applies after the jump for the recaps and for the comments section. Meth heads welcome. For previous recaps, click here.
In previous recaps, I have discussed the slower pace and subdued tone of season three, and several Slash readers have noticed the slight change as well. The initial episodes haven’t been subpar or boring, but for the non-diehards and for curious surfers, I imagine Walter White‘s broodiness and the larger-than-life, some have argued “cartoonish,” enigma of the Cousins is off-putting. But overall, the season’s kick-off is realistic. Figurative dust continues to settle after season two’s finale, and several main characters have used the shadow of tragedy to privately search and await a sign, an epiphany, or any justification to grasp at what he or she selfishly desires most.
Aptly titled, “Green Light,” the fourth episode shoves these characters’ ambitions and longings forward, and fans may have noticed the writers lacing the ep with the humor and foreshadowing that hooked us back when Walt still had hair/manners. After the jump, I’ll cease saying anything further about next week’s episode, but I will say it’s even better than “Green Light.” Season three’s slow burn is about to ignite into a highway to hell. (Yay?)
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/Film will be recapping and discussing each episode of the third season of Breaking Bad. A spoiler warning applies after the jump for the recaps and for the comments section. Meth heads and readers’ thoughts welcome. For previous recaps, click here.
The third episode of the third season, “I.F.T.” continues the series’ slow burn this year and we have to admit, the percolating (and/or slightly tedious?) tension has us counting the days until death knocks on someone’s door. It was an ep highlighting connections and inevitable reveals. Until the final seconds, the meaning of the titular acronym rained a mystery—and when viewers figured it out, I’m pretty sure Walter White was considering a revision to his “honesty is good” policy. Or perhaps he simply reacted by storming out for a signature bender in his tighty-whities.
Other reveals dealt with the degrees of separation between the Cousins of Death and a pivotal character from the series’ past, and an unexpected flashback on Danny Trejo’s thug.
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/Film will be recapping and discussing each episode of the third season of Breaking Bad. A spoiler warning applies after the jump for the recaps and for the comments section. Meth heads welcome. For previous recaps, click here.
“You see I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name. It felt good to be out of the rain.”
Walter White became a drug dealer to aggressively restore control over his life and the fate of his family after being diagnosed with cancer. The first two episodes of the third season have, unbeknownst to him, introduced a vengeful, eerily superstitious enemy spurred by this decision. It’s not the first time Walter White has faced violent opposition, but it’s the first time the severity has been emphasized using skulls, voodoo offerings, a black Mercedes, and a Ouija board. By now we’ve also learned to pay attention to episode titles, and “Caballo Sin Nombre,” or “Horse with No Name,” is no different.
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/Film will be recapping episodes for the third season of Breaking Bad, starting with last Sunday’s premiere. A spoiler warning applies after the jump for every recap and the comments section. Meth heads welcome. For previous write-ups on the second and third season of Breaking Bad, click here.
Sunday’s premiere, entitled “No Mas,” was a subdued affair save for multiple homicides and a nightmarish undercurrent that ran throughout. Series creator, Vince Gilligan, didn’t feel the need for a time jump, so we find Walter White worse for wear in the aftermath of season two’s finale. Now sporting a much thicker goatee, it’s the first time in the series that he looks less like a cancer patient than a hardboiled criminal off The Wire. “No Mas” also marks the second ep directed by star Bryan Cranston and he immediately introduces us to a pair of nameless, relentless, and nearly identical thugs, shown above.
With no exposition, in minutes the duo comes to represent the unbelievable, escalating real life wrath of drug cartels in Mexico and these cartels’ common belief in the skull-headed deity of Santa Muerte. If you’re unfamiliar with the chaos happening in the country, check out this recent editorial by journalist Charles Bowden. Something tells us the third season of Breaking Bad will thoroughly address the gruesome “life is cheap” realities of Mexico’s drug trade, after foreshadowing them with the classic tortoise scene last year.
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Relativity Media announced today that Peter Farrelly (of the famous comedy directing team The Farrelly Brothers), Brett Ratner, actress Elizabeth Banks, Bob Odenkirk and Griffin Dunne (The Accidental Husband) are directing a sketch comedy feature film. More directors are expected to be announced shortly. Originally set up at Overture Films, the yet-to-be-titled comedy project takes a unifying storyline for a series of sketch comedies in the vein of the 1970s hits Kentucky Fried Movie and Groove Tube. Not much more is known about the premise.
The growing cast includes Elizabeth Banks, Gerard Butler, Kieran Culkin, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Sean William Scott, Tony Shalhoub, Emma Stone, Matt Walsh, Patrick Warburton, Naomi Watts, and Kate Winslet. The producers will announce additional cast members as further deals are solidified, and production will continue thru late May 2010.
I expect that we’ll be seeing more and more movies like this after the success of Valentine’s Day, which was able to cram an impressive ensemble cast into a modestly budgeted romantic comedy. And a Sketch movie allows you to cram even more stars and directors into a two hour feature for a low cost and time commitment. You can read the full press release after the jump.
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Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?
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